Abstract 5139: Chemerin suppresses prostate tumor growth by modulating the recruitment of NK and CD8+ T-cells to tumor microenvironment
Authors: Muhammad A. Saeed, Kevin Kim, Russell K. Pachynski
Journal: Cancer Research (2023)

Abstract Infiltration of immune cells into the tumor microenvironment (TME) can regulate growth and survival of malignant cells, thereby affecting tumorigenesis and tumor progression. While immune checkpoint inhibitors and agonism of costimulatory molecules can act to stimulate leukocytes, the lack of adequate recruitment of effector cells into TME often results in suboptimal immune responses. Chemerin (retinoic acid receptor responder 2, RARRES2) is an endogenous chemoattractant that is widely expressed by many tissues and recruits innate leukocytes through its receptor, CMKLR1 which is expressed on NK cells, some dendritic cells, and macrophages. Previous studies show that RARRES2 is downregulated across multiple tumor types including prostate cancer. Here, using a syngeneic transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate (TRAMP-C1) model, we show that forced overexpression of RARRES2 by tumor cells results in significant tumor suppression and recruitment of NK and CD8+ T-cells within the TME. Male C57/BL/6 mice were inoculated with either RARRES2-overexpressing, vector control (VC) or mixed (50:50; VC: RARRES2) TRAMP-C1 cells. Chemerin overexpression in TRAMP-C1 cells did not alter their phenotypic behavior in vitro, but significantly suppressed tumor growth in vivo in mice. Furthermore, we observed a significantly higher influx of NK (CD3-CD19-NK1.1+) and CD8+ T-cells (CD3+CD8+) in tumor-infiltrating leukocytes (TILs) from mice with mixed tumors compared with VC tumors. Depletion of NK cells, CD4+, or CD8+ T cells showed that NK cells and CD8+ T-cells, but not CD4+ T-cells, were required for chemerin-dependent suppression of TRAMP-C1 tumor growth. We found significant increases in splenic NK and CD8 T cells, and a concomitant significant decrease in splenic G-MDSC in mice with chemerin-expressing tumors compared to controls, suggesting chemerin expression within the TME has an effect on systemic immune responses. Treatment of control tumors with anti-PD1 checkpoint inhibition did not result in significant tumor suppression, while anti-PD1 treatment of chemerin-expressing tumors significantly reduced tumor growth, doubling the complete response rate in these unresponsive tumors. Thus, for the first time we have demonstrated that increasing chemerin expression within the prostate TME can suppress growth by augmenting recruitment of NK and CD8+ T-cells and has the potential to be combined with checkpoint inhibitors in order to improve response rates in non-responsive tumors. Overall, these data suggest that a tumor-targeted chemerin therapeutic may have potential to treat human prostate cancers. Citation Format: Muhammad A. Saeed, Kevin Kim, Russell K. Pachynski. Chemerin suppresses prostate tumor growth by modulating the recruitment of NK and CD8+ T-cells to tumor microenvironment. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 5139.